About

RickB- Human, Artist, Fool.

Ynys Mon, UK.

The blog is called ten percent because of what Kurt Vonnegut wrote when remembering Susan Sontag - She was asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, and she said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.-

And I'm writing it because I need the therapy and I lust for world domination.

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Food Bank Sees 300% Increase As Benefits Are Delayed

25 May, 2009 — RickB

I don’t understand, doesn’t everyone get £400 a month in expenses just to buy food???? Or a multi-Billion pound bailout??? Or am I being silly, million pound bonuses for financiers and income scams for their chums in parliament are more important than eating? Because literally that is the choice that has been made, and thankfully the police were there to enforce it with murder. Walk ten miles to a food bank then tell me things are fine with how we run this shit. Shall we have a big shiny think tank debate on it? Will there be a buffet lunch?

A charity providing emergency food aid says it has seen a massive increase in demand for help in a Welsh town. The Ebbw Vale food bank in Blaenau Gwent says there has been a 300% increase in those asking for help.

The charity’s manager, Adrian Curtis, said many of those affected were on benefits. “So far we’ve fed 165 people in the borough and last month we saw a 300% increase in our client base,” he said. “As more people are getting familiar with it, we’re getting more coming forward. We have noticed that some clients that have come in can be attributed to the credit crunch.”

He said just over half of the clients had contacted the food bank because of problems related to their benefit claims. “As a result of the economic downturn the benefit system is under stress and people are having to wait a little longer for their benefits,” said Mr Curtis, who is also regional development officer for Food Bank Wales.

He said the food bank helped people in a short-term crisis, such as a sudden drop in income which meant they could not provide food for themselves and their family. This includes people who have been made redundant or even victims of domestic abuse who have fled their homes with almost nothing.

Across the UK, the food bank network has now fed 24,000 people.

One individual helped by the project was unemployed Nigel Smith, 44, originally from Blaina. On the Friday morning before the May Day bank holiday, he discovered he would be unable to access any money as a result of a delay in his benefit. When benefits staff supplied him with a food voucher to help him out, he walked the 10 miles from his home to the food bank in Ebbw Vale. Staff there were able to supply him with two bags of food – a variety of tins, pasta, biscuits and breakfast cereal – as well as money for a bus ticket home and even a lift to the bus stop.